Summary for Pre-History of Lenin's Party
Previous: Narodniki, part 16 Summary 1. Pre-history of Lenin's party shows necessary stages in development of revolutionary party. These are: : a) Banditry and robbery. ::: Hence, as a paradox, an increase in crime statistics in society shows that it is moving in the direction of formation of a revolutionary party. For example, read an article on increase of crime in Ukraine. In the U.S., witness "Gangsta Rap" movement, e.g. this video . : b) Running away from civilization to become a hermit, a monk, "a drop out". ::: A lot of people either do "downshifting", or leave their society to lead alternative lifestyles, for example in mobile homes, on yachts, in special communes, etc. 10 examples see here . : c) Running away to "virgin lands". :::: Modern examples of this are emigration to the United States, a refugee crisis in Europe. : d) Peasant rebellions. :::: A peasant-based rebellion was at the core of the Chinese revolution of 1949 and the Cuban revolution of 1959. Many of the people fighting today in Columbia in the ranks of FARC are of peasant origin. : e) An opposition to the regime comes from poets, writers and scientists. :::: An opposition to Stalinist regime in the USSR came from such poets as Vladimir Vysotsky . Opposition to the "perestroika" regime of Gorbachev came from such singer as Yanka Dyagileva. Opposition to the American capitalism and imperialism came from such movie producers as Oliver Stone ("Salvador", "Platoon") and Michael Moore ("Sicko", "Capitalism: a Love Story"). Opposition to the system of private property comes from computer hacks, for example torrent sites. : f) A coup d'etat ("Decembrists") . ::::: In XX century, we see examples of such phenomena in the "Free Officer" movements in Egypt (the "July revolution", 1952), in Iraq (e.g. Saddam Hussein), in Lybia in 1969 (the coup d'etat led by Muammar Quaddafi). The latest coup d'etat of significance happened in Egypt in 2013, when a president from "Muslim Brotherhood", a radical conservative party, was overthrown by the Army, representing the centrist bourgeoisie. In Ukraine in 2014 we have seen a coup d'etat, when Pres. Yanukovich was overthrown by the "Euromaidan " opposition. : g) Nihilism and anarchism . ::::: There is a resurgence of anarchism, due to crisis of communist ideology and Marxism specifically. : h) A new spiral in development of productive forces. Leading classes of the population start forming underground cells and circles in opposition to the state. Gradually, someone attempts to unite these circles into an organization. A proto-party is formed. This organization fights off state security with organization of its own counterintelligence and execution of government spies. It engages in a number of terrorist acts , growing in scope and professionalism. However, after it makes its ultimate attempt, we plainly see that masses of people don't support it. It is far removed from the masses. :::: A number of left-wing terrorist organizations have existed. In Brazil in 1960's this was MR-8. In Germany, this was RAF. Similar organizations existed in Italy and Japan. Altogether, they prove, again, that "Blanquism ", i.e. a narrow movement of revolutionaries separated from the masses of the people, doesn't work. : j) The next logical step is unification of the movement of the masses of a progressive class with the nucleus of an underground party organization. First workers' circles appear in Russia at the end of XVIII century (see "Notes on Lyadov "). A new kind of revolutonary theory - Marxism - appears in the middle of XIX century in Western Europe. At the end of the XIX century, this theory is brought to the Russian progressive intellectuals (works of P. Struve, G. Plekhanov, V. Lenin). They struggle against the theoreticians of the Narodnik movement. Marxist circles are formed. These are at first repressed (e.g. the fate of the "St. Petersburg League for the Emancipation of Labor", 1895, the First Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party, 1898), but gradually they unite around a common newspaper, "The Spark". A new party is formed - in struggle against the old form of organization (separate, independent circles). : So, it is the union of a global revolutionary theory, new for its times (Marxism in XIX century) + a mass movement which seems to confirm this theory (the workers' movement, resulting from industrialization), which produce the instrument adequate for overthrow of the old social order. :: ::: In XIX century we could judge develoment of the workers' movement by the number of strikes. Today, we can judge the information revolution by the number of people working through Internet, the numbers of direct or indirect "knowledge workers", i.e. those who process information. As for a new global ::: revolutionary theory, adequate for the rise of the information revolution and crisis of both capitalism and Stalinism, this is yet to be formed. Early birds of the future movement to be formed are such events as "The Arab Spring " and "Occupy " movements. Both of these movement relied heavily upon organization through information networks, such as Facebook, and Internet in general. Category:Pre-History of Lenin's Party Category:Теория революционной организации Category:К уставу революционера